Letters to the Editor
Ben Sen
Published Letters: 539 Editor's Choice: 97
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Turning It Around
[Read the article: Inside America's powerful Israel lobby]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Letterwriter Lee Levin is a voice heard far to rarely. If this battle of conscience is not fought within the Jewish community, as it needs to be fought outside of it--efforts will fail.
I've met some very smart people, people who normally know a lot better who are still siding with Israel--but not feeling good about it. They are not oblivious, they are people of conscience, they know it smells bad--and it is hard not to have sympathy for them.
But I fear they have become as much of the problem as the Americans who moved to Israel for no other reason than settling the West Bank. They are allowing themselves to be led by forces they know in their hearts have gotten out of control.
The Palestinians are not, after all, the ones who did it to the Israelis. Not in the way it is being dished out to them. The death count, and those conditions, and those brutish acts performed again and again against the innocent don't happen in a vacuum.
I don't happen to think the annihilization, or near annihilization of another people by a people who were almost annihilated themselves is the working of a just and fair interpretation of anything that can be called religion.
I'm sorry, but I'm also not sorry because it is so disgusting--a betrayal of conscience. In a hundred, (or make that two hundred years) they'll look back upon this situation the way we look back upon the Thirty Years War in Europe. We're fighting for reasons that have nothing to do with the religions at stake--but the populus is so buried in ignorance it can't see the bushes, let alone the trees in the forest..
It would be funny if it wasn't so blatantly pathetic, and we have organizations like this to prove it. WE GOT WHO IS OPPRESSING WHOM ALL MIXED UP IN THIS ONE. And it has gone on for more than Thirty Years!
The way it looks now, there won't be any relief until the day the right is voted out of office in this country, and in Israel, so a dialogue that isn't firmly rooted in the past can take place. The reactionaries have certainly had their opportunity to show what their policies and practices lead too. Maybe it is simply the other sides turn.
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NeoCon Turpitude and Peace in the Middle East
[Read the article: Can American Jews unplug the Israel lobby?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I enjoy how Gary always places a "positive" light on things, but the polls are one matter, and the voters are another.
Yesterday's disagreement between the US and Israel over negotiating with the Palestinian government probably came after he did his piece, but it constituted the first break in the US support for the right wing government in Israel. Too few seem to recognize that is all that has gone on now for generations--and it doesn't work.
Stories like this at least take umbridge with the status quo, but it's going to take a lot more. Will it be an issue in the '08 political race? Will any real movement be made?
Obama needs to be recognized for at least saying something, but he isn't the frontrunner--is he--and the frontrunner in this instance is the one to watch. Does Hillary agree there is enough "voter" support among Liberal American Jews to stick her neck out as well?
What are the liberal lobbies and interested parties doing to make this possible? It is time to hook in the election. and give credit when it is due. My bet is Edward's will in the end capitalize on it the most--and unlike Obama he doesn't only talk in platitudes--so it will be interesting to see what he will do.
Is it possible American disenchantment with the neo-con agenda will finally bring down the Israeli right wing lobby? That's the question. If it is going to happen, and this isn't more pie in the sky, that is the possibility. Have they destroyed themselves with their own turpitude?
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It's a Diversion
[Read the article: The president's oh-so-noble reliance on "executive privilege"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The whole exercise is still not much more than a diversion. The real story right now is the news that the oil fields in Iraq have been placed back under the ownership of the oil companies--or will soon when the deal is finalized.
Bush and particularly Cheney's actions become obvious when the war is seen in this light. Only once have the oil executives been brought to Washington (way before the midterm) with the promise that they would be told to return--but it never happened.
Now, with time running out, and the Dems no longer totally impotent, the two-bit scandals have captured the nation's attention, and even blogland is falling for it. It's a shame. You actually think it's going to change many minds given the current polarization?
Yes, dear friends, the United States of America started a war where some thousands of its own died, and thousands upon thousands of innocents died for no other reason than securing the interests of one industry and those who run it. The proof is sitting on the table, but nobody sees it--or wants too.
Now that is a story that cannot be reduced to partisanship. This is what it's going to take if the direction of the country is going to change. It has to face its own shadow.